Kenneth
JandaPolitical Parties: A Cross-National SurveyNew York: The Free
Press, 1980: pp. 681-682BURMA: The Party System in 1950-1957 and
1958-19621

(Text
as published in 1980 citation above)

Burma was annexed
into the British Indian Empire in 1886 as a province of
India, and in 1937 it was given status as a separate colony.
The nationalist forces working for independence cooperated
with the Japanese, forming a Burma Independence Army and
helping to defeat the British. Disenchanted with Japanese
rule, the Burma Independence Army became transformed into
the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), fought a
guerrilla war against the Japanese, and helped the British
return to Burma. Led by Aung San, the AFPFL then worked once
more for Burmese independence from Britain. The AFPFL won
190 of the 220 seats in the 1947 elections of a constituent
assembly to form a constitution. It was adopted in
September, and Burma became a fully independent nation
outside the British Commnonwealth in January 1948.

Following Aung San's assassination on the eve of
independence, U Nu became leader of the AFPFL. The party
retained a clear majority of seats in the 1951 elections for
the new parliament. But, within the AFPFL, U Nu's leadership
was challenged by Ba Swe and Kyaw Nyein, leaders of a
socialist group within the coalition. The Burma Workers and
Peasants Party, which split from the Socialists in 1950, was
the most important opposition party outside the AFPFL. In
1956 parliamentary elections, the AFPFL again won about 60
percent of the seats and maintained control of the
government with U Nu as premier.

The internal
division within the AFPFL erupted into a split in early
1958, with the Swe-Nyein group breaking away and eventually
forming the "Stable" AFPFL in distinction to U Nu's "Clean"
AFPFL. The crisis resulted in General Ne Win's taking over
the government in October 1958 and wielding emergency powers
voted by parliament. After supervising an election in
February 1960, Ne Win terminated his government. U Nu's
Clean AFPFL, renamed the Union Party, won a landslide
victory in these elections. But U Nu's government had
trouble restraining inflation, promoting economic
development, and controlling secessionist activities.
General Ne Win intervened again in February 1962. This time,
however, he established a military government and dissolved
parliament. Thus our period of party study closes with the
end of 1961.

Continuity
and Change since 1962

As shown in
the graph of party representation in the Burmese Assembly,
none of the parties in our original study continued into
1978. Indeed, the three that existed as of 1962 were banned
by Ne Win's Revolutionary Council in March 1964 and only his
own party, formed after our study, was allowed to
continue.

Original
Parties, Terminated

501
Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League. The AFPFL
terminated during our study in 1958, when it split into the
next two parties.

502 Stable Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League.
The Stable AFPFL lost the 1960 election to the other faction
and constituted the main parliamentary opposition to U Nu's
government. But parliament was dissolved with General Ne
Win's takeover in 1962, and the party was dissolved in
1964.

503 Clean Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League.
The Clean AFPFL was renamed the Union Party by its leader U
Nu, who headed the government after the 1960 elections and
was deposed by Ne Win's coup. The Union Party was also
dissolved in 1964.

504
National United Front. A coalition of mainly leftist
parties, the NUF was a small group in the legislature
terminated by Ne Win. It also ended in 1964.

New
Parties, Continuing

505 Burma
Socialist Program Party. The BSPP was founded soon after
the military takeover in 1962 to promote the socialist goals
of the new Revolutionary Council. In two years, it became
the only legal party but remained little more than an elite
military grouping. In 1970, the leadership undertook to
transform the pall into a mass?based political organization.
By February 1971, the party reported 70000 regular
members.

Summary

Since 1962, Burma has been technically a single-party
state, but the party was neither oriented toward nor
organized for mass participation until 1971. Its capacity
for mobilizing, aggregating, and articulating political
interests has yet to be tested. The new constitution of 1974
established a national assembly for the first time since the
coup, and BSPP candidates are reported to have won all but a
few seats held by independents. Elections were held again in
1978 with similar results. Entering 1979, Burma's government
is still headed by the ageing Ne Win, now president. Whether
the BSPP will emerge as a mobilizing but stabilizing force
that can guide the country after a change of leadership is
problematic.

1.Our study of party politics in Burma is
based on a file of 2,037 pages from 110 documents, all in
English (see Table 1.3). The bibliographic search and
indexing of material for the file was done by Amos
Sawyer, who also coded all the Burmese parties on most of
the variables in the ICPP conceptual framework. Mary
Welfling completed the coding for the last two variable
clusters. Allan Goodman was our outside
consultant.